Why Women Stay in Abusive Relationships

Rick Nauert, PhD, Senior News Editor | April 13, 2010 10:16am ET

A new study provides insights into the behavior of women
entrenched in an abusive relationship with their male partner.

Researchers discovered that many who live with chronic psychological
abuse still see certain positive traits in their abusers — such as
dependability and being affectionate — which may partly explain why they
stay.

"We wanted to see whether survey information from women who were not
currently seeking treatment or counseling for relationship abuse could
be a reliable source for identifying specific types of male abusers,"
says Patricia O'Campo, a social epidemiologist and director of the
Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital in
Toronto.

She adds that past research has underscored abused women's personal
evaluations of their intimate relationships — specifically, their
commitment to the relationships and positive feelings about the abuser
or the relationship — as critical in their decisions to continue or
terminate abusive relationships.

Using survey data from a project funded by the U.S. National
Institute of Mental Health, the researchers explored the experiences of
611 urban-dwelling, low-income American women.

Overall, 42.8 percent of those surveyed said they had been abused by
their intimate male partners in the year preceding the survey.

Psychological abuse was significantly more of an ongoing problem
than physical abuse, while sexual abuse was reported as least common.

A relatively small number of women (2.3 percent) perceived their
partners as extremely controlling, while 1.2 percent reported that their
partners engaged in extreme generally violent behaviors.

But a considerable number of women felt their abusive male partners
still possessed some good qualities: More than half (54 percent) saw
their partners as highly dependable, while one in five (21 percent) felt
the men in their lives possessed significant positive traits (i.e.,
being affectionate).

Based on the survey findings, the researchers divided the male
abusers into three groups: "Dependable, yet abusive" men (44 percent of
the sample) had the lowest scores for controlling and generally violent
behaviors, and the highest scores for dependability and positive traits.

"Positive and controlling" men (38 percent of the sample) had
moderately high scores for violence and also for dependability and
positive traits. However, they were more controlling than men in the
first group, displaying significantly higher levels of generally violent
behaviors.

"Dangerously abusive" men (18 percent of the sample) had the highest
scores for violence, controlling behavior and legal problems and the
lowest scores for dependability and positive traits.

The researchers say their findings suggest there is value in studying
the problem of male violence through the perceptions of abused women,
including those who are currently "outside" the social services and
legal systems designed to help them.

"The importance of listening to women's voices cannot be highlighted
enough and needs further exploration," says O'Campo.

"This is just one step toward potentially increasing our
understanding of how to find additional ways to improve women's safety."